Mike Monroe: Popovich adopts more vigorous approach

When doctors who ordered surgery on Manu Ginobili’s left hand told Gregg Popovich he would be without his star shooting guard for six to eight weeks, the Spurs coach knew what had to happen if his team was to remain among the best in the West.

The onus, he said, wasn’t on the players in line to take Ginobili’s minutes. James Anderson, Gary Neal, Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard needed only to play to their capabilities.

“That’s silly,” he said of a suggestion those players needed to “step up” their games if the Spurs were to survive.

One of those four is not like the others, and a 62-year-old head coach wasn’t suggesting he might become the oldest player-coach in NBA history.

What is clear, though, is that in the seven games his team has played without their Argentine All-Star, Popovich has taken a much more vigorous approach to his role.

Jefferson has seen this first-hand, and it happened again Friday at the team’s morning shootaround. It also occurred in the fourth quarter of an important win over a Trail Blazers team that had become a nemesis the previous three seasons.

Sweating through some extra work on his 3-point stroke after the morning practice, Jefferson got a gentle reminder there was a game to be played a few hours hence, the message clear: This season, energy has to be preserved.

Hours later, when he aggressively snatched a rebound from LaMarcus Aldridge and crashed hard to the AT&T Center floor, Jefferson saw Popovich pumping his fist in animated appreciation.

It’s lunacy to suggest Popovich is enjoying life without Ginobili, but no stretch to posit he is having fun, even under adverse circumstances. That the 20-year-old Leonard was force-fed into the starting lineup after T.J. Ford’s injury last week and performed better than any rookie since Ginobili has added to the sense the coach can’t wait to see what will unfold with each game.

Without question, Ginobili’s injury altered Popovich’s approach.

“Pop tried to ease into the season, but he’s definitely picked it up with his intensity, letting everybody know everything’s not going to be OK,” Jefferson said. “We’re going to have to play better, we’re going to have to focus, we’re going to have to play sharper. We have less room for error.

“He’s going to be on everyone, and he is. The way he changed from the first game to the game Manu got hurt to now, he’s picked up his intensity. He knows how important every game is in this shortened season.”

How important are the games during Ginobili’s convalescence?

Trying to secure his team’s first road victory on Tuesday night in Milwaukee, Popovich kept Duncan on the floor for 36 minutes, a season-high to that point. When that wasn’t enough, he let Duncan play 38 minutes the next night in an overtime win over the Rockets at the AT&T Center.

“It’s not old-school Pop, just more realistic Pop,” Jefferson said. “That’s more his tone.”

And when the schedule finally afforded Popovich a chance for his first practice since training camp on Saturday morning, a realist kept things short and to the point, then told Duncan to go home before he could consider extra shooting drills.